Versions/QLM1-299745

Update Information


Hello intrepid colony managers!

Today we're happy to bring you the first edition of our new "Quality of Life" Upgrade series! This series will differ slightly from Upgrades we've released in the past, as we shift our focus toward a new stage of development dedicated to evaluating all game content to date. This means looking at improving performance, filling in remaining holes in content, and rebalancing existing systems (hooray!).

The intent of QoL Mk 1 is to begin working through the important issues that have been brought up by users on our forums (thank-you for your feedback and reports!), as well as eliminating major game-impacting bugs, and improving the quality of Oxygen Not Included's early game for new users. As a result, QoL Mk 1 introduces new recipe queuing UI options, more building copy settings, and a bunch of new content expanding the decor system such as varieties on existing paintings, sculptures and flower pots (plus a whole assortment of crash fixes and performance tweaks).

Throughout the rest of the QoL Upgrades, we will be continuing to monitor the forums and your reports for more feedback on how we can improve the game. We've made some serious progress on bugs and polish this update, but there's still more to come! We've still got even more systems to balance and optimization to perform.

In addition, the team will be taking a two week break over the holidays and getting back to it in the New Year. The next update will be on schedule in 8 weeks, coming out February 7th.

Thank you to everyone who participating in our open testing branch, we hope you enjoy the decor!

What's New and Improved?

The majority of the work this Upgrade has been on a wide range of bugs and tuning, so rather than a list of high-level features like we usually do, here's a massive categorized list of the changes and improvements we've made.

New Things

 * New Pedestal Building: Use it to increase the decor value of various objects while displaying them for your Duplicants
 * New Decor Items: Corner Decorations, Carpeted Tile, Trim Tile, new Painting and Statue variations, new Pot types for plants
 * New Master Artist role allows the creation of the best forms of art (and the Astronaut role finally has its own hat too!)
 * Increased Automation: Critter Sensor outputs a signal based on the number of critters and eggs in a room
 * New Sight-Seeing Module: Send Duplicants to space for a huge morale and productivity bonus

Duplicants

 * Duplicants no longer freeze in place when taking medicine, locking a door, or rummaging through lockers
 * Duplicants no longer crash the game by trying to talk about the mopping UI icon
 * Extensive changes to Duplicant assignment allows assignment to properly persist when Duplicants go into space
 * Duplicants will no longer get stuck trying to work at unreachable Ranching Stations
 * Duplicants are less likely to choose an incompletable fetch over a completable one. Prevents a lot of the "dancing" Duplicants
 * Duplicants no longer get stuck if there is a Mourn chore they can't reach it
 * Attack orders are properly restored on load
 * Duplicants no longer get stuck on a Fetch chore forever if there is an Attack chore
 * Fixed crash when Dupes try putting on an Exosuit
 * Jet Suit Duplicants will no longer "bounce" in place
 * Duplicants will no longer wake up to cheer if they're on a daytime sleep schedule
 * No matter how bad a Duplicant's stats, they'll never work slower than 50% speed (75% for construction).
 * Jet Suit locomotion and multitool usage now has a full animation set
 * Jet Suit sound effects completed
 * Hair should no longer flicker when Dupes get into and out of bed with a hat
 * Added in some eyes that were missing from various Duplicant animations
 * Disease idles and expressions are more consistent with the actual disease
 * Some movement transitions from Fire Poles to Ladders and vice versa have been added
 * Duplicants will return their suits when idle
 * Finishing eating food no longer causes intermittent crashing
 * Duplicants can no longer become ill after they have died
 * Burying a Duplicant no longer causes a crash
 * Correct animations play when a Duplicant dies and is carried away

Critters and Plants

 * Shove Voles no longer crash the game upon dying
 * Shove Voles no longer show as “entombed” when underground, since that's their happy place
 * Shove Voles can no longer move through doors and tiles made of refined metal, or other very hard materials
 * Critters on walls and ceilings should no longer fall due to gravity
 * Shove Voles are better at avoiding Meteors
 * Shove Voles are more aware of what kind of ground they are on/in for movement and animation
 * Hatches are no longer invisible on load
 * Meteors no longer launch critters around because of numerous unintended effects
 * Shove Voles no longer get stuck if they can't find anything diggable
 * Plants no longer consume water if wilted on load
 * Bagged Critters no longer fall when carried by a Duplicant
 * Fixed Shove Vole head colour
 * Added art for the Gas Grass seeds and harvested plant
 * Full Baby Shove Vole anim set added
 * Shove Vole plays correct animation when emerging from the ground
 * Shove Voles correctly render as "buried" when idling in a solid
 * Added Shove Vole sound effects
 * Frost Buns once again use grains, and not plants, as an ingredient
 * Sleet Wheat seeds should always show as "Cooking Ingredients" and not "Seeds" in the resource list and storage containers/fridges.
 * Slicksters no longer freeze if they can't reach their favourite pee spot
 * Pufts no longer get confused if there's a door above them when they try to poop
 * Potted plant decor updates correctly after wilting and unwilting
 * Baby Puft blinks correctly
 * Duplicants will pick up Pacu with their Multitool rather than bagging them directly
 * Fix a crash when uprooting plants from Farm Tiles and Planter Boxes
 * Vole Pups will no longer fail to dig
 * Decorative plants contribute to a room's decor calculations

Buildings

 * Neural Vacillators can now be properly assigned after recharging
 * Neural Vacillators are now prioritizable
 * Hooked up recharging animations for Neural Vacillator
 * Destroying a rotated door no longer lets the Robo-Miner dig out adjacent floors
 * Lavatories, Showers, and Sinks no longer get immediately blocked if you run the pipe "across" the output port by storing the last "use" in an output storage
 * Fixed a crash when trying to build outside the game grid
 * Oil Wells correctly save/load their depressurization percentage
 * Fixed many buildings still accepting delivery when entombed or otherwise disabled
 * Smart Storage Bins now actually consume power
 * Manual Generators should no longer allow multiple Duplicants to operate them
 * Metal Refineries will stop working if output pipe is blocked
 * Metal Refinery calculation for the amount of heat added to the coolant is now much more correct and stable
 * The order of placement for Bridges and Tiles shouldn't matter anymore
 * Telescopes shade the Duplicants working at them so they won't get sunburned
 * Bunker Doors no longer have access controls
 * Egg Incubators now have a "Continuous" option
 * Liquid Reservoir meter now shows as empty when the building is empty
 * Added Liquid Reservoir sound effects
 * Finalized art for the Virtual Planetarium
 * Improved animations for the Jet Suit Checkpoint
 * Jet Suit Checkpoint full animations hooked up
 * Canister Filler animations now match the functionality of the building
 * Updated Canister Filler sound effects
 * Fixed layering for Heavi-Watt Joint Plate
 * Telescope "finished working" animation should play correctly
 * Space Cadet Centrifuge, and several other buildings, should only play its final animation once
 * Auto-Sweeper animations play once again
 * Robo-Miner laser sounds added
 * Virtual Planetarium sound effects
 * Algae Terrarium has new "emptying" animation
 * Outhouse meter gets correctly reset when cleaning completes
 * Paintings and Sculptures use Job traits to determine the quality of the artwork, rather than the Creativity skill. (Creativity skill still affects the "work time" for completion)
 * Overhaul of decor values for decor items
 * Canvases now require Reed Fiber to construct
 * Telescope door sound effects added
 * Algae Terrarium interact sound effects added
 * Tweaks to Robo-Miner sound effects
 * Tweaked high frequencies of Overlay Activation sound
 * Fish Release sound effects added
 * Fish Release "drop" timing adjusted
 * Doors correctly exchange temperature with their environment once again
 * Dupes will face the correct direction when putting a Pacu in the Fish Release
 * Jet Suit recipe will show on the Exosuit Forge as soon as the matching Research is completed
 * Rottable foods will no longer rot in Electric Grill storage
 * Sculptures and Canvases can now be flipped
 * Fixed a crash when placing or constructing buildings off the edge of the world
 * Duplicants will not try to construct buildings in invalid locations such as off the edge of the world

Elements and Materials

 * Fullerene can now be stored in Storage Bins
 * Various elements are more correctly sorted in the elements list and in Storage Bin filters. Only affects new bases or elements which haven't yet been discovered in a base.
 * Food items now have unlimited stack size (instead of 10), but will only stack with other foods that have a rot within 10%. This will help with massive amounts of Sleet Wheat, though the wheat will have to be emptied and reinserted into Storage Bins in order for the restacking to trigger.
 * Added "Industrial" entities to Sandbox spawner
 * Lowered freezing point of Super Coolant
 * Raw Metal is now called Metal Ore to prevent confusion with Raw Mineral
 * Non-Elemental materials (i.e Fiber) can now apply bonuses to buildings
 * Reed Fiber now has a 10% decor bonus
 * A "full" Regolith tile reduced from 1840kg to 1000kg
 * Gases show in the Materials list (as Breathable and Unbreathable gas)

Rocketry

 * More space and rocketry strings can be localized
 * Astronauts no longer lose their consumables settings
 * Astronauts no longer lose their skill levels if the game is loaded while they're in space
 * Critters and Plants can once again be returned from space
 * Rocket Modules can no longer be deconstructed or melted while the rocket is in space. If the rocket modules in your save file have already been destroyed, that rocket will have to be rebuilt, but further launches will not have this problem
 * Command Modules won't melt the contained atmosuit while in flight
 * Rocket Fuel Tanks are insulated, so the steam won't condense while fuelling
 * It is now possible to select a space destination for analysis after the previous one has completed
 * Fixed various crashes when the Command Module lands and tries creating the stored Duplicant
 * Rocket destinations are more stable, so it should no longer be possible to swap a destination mid-flight, or for two rockets to share a destination by accident.
 * Selection mechanics and icons on the Starmap screen improved to make it more clear which rocket is going to which destination
 * Rocket Fuel Tanks and Oxidizers no longer drop all their fuel on slider adjustment. If the slider is set below the current amount stored, a Duplicant will come empty the difference
 * Rocket travel times are now based on the simulation’s progress, so cycle counts will match up even at high speeds or with bad lag.
 * Rocket Logic has been reworked: The Space Scanner now turns off when the rocket is grounded, is on when launching, off while in space, on when close to landing (based on dish network quality), and on while landing. The Command Capsule only emits a signal while grounded, ready, or while taking off.
 * Fixed a possible crash when building a new rocket
 * Added a fuel meter to the Steam Engine
 * Oxidizer tanks have been split into Solid and Liquid Oxidizer Tanks. Existing rockets may require reconfiguring
 * Newly created rockets have randomly generated names
 * Prevent the destinations of long-gone rockets from highlighting on the Starmap screen
 * Fix various crashes on load that could occur from rockets being destroyed in space
 * Any Duplicant who was "lost in space" from a rocketry bug will magically reappear at the Printer Pod
 * Duplicants won't leave the rocket unless there is a Gantry in place
 * Astronaut Duplicants returning from space really have to pee
 * Astronauts can be unassigned from rockets on the first try after loading a game

Database

 * Fix broken Database links in the descriptions of the Gas Grass and Gassy Moo
 * Updated Database entries for Creatures and Jobs
 * Added missing Database entries for Swamp Lily, Dusk Cap, Gas Grass, Sleet Wheat
 * Adding Database entries describing different game systems at a high level
 * More POI buildings are inspectable
 * Updated Critter Database entries
 * Multiple new discoverable lore entries
 * Disabled incomplete/nonfunctional entries

Simulations

 * Entombed ore won't create a cell if the mass is too low now
 * Fixed issue where buildings that produced elements would sometimes start producing other elements after a save/load
 * Mass is no longer lost when multiple items stack together on the same frame
 * Conveyor Receptacles will allow a single item to exceed their storage limit so they won't stall the whole line
 * Various buildings are stricter about disallowing inputs and outputs to overlap, such as Heavi-Watt Joint Plates. These have never worked correctly, but now at least you won't be able to create new overlaps. If you correct any existing overlaps, a save/load will be required to put the game back into a consistent state.
 * Heavi-Watt Wire can no longer pass through Pneumatic Doors
 * Heavi-Watt Joint Plates can connect properly even if they were a "replacement" for an existing tile
 * Fixed crash if building a Wire Bridge at the edge of the map
 * Fixed crash if drag-placing logic bridges over buildings with logic ports
 * Fixed crash when destroying a building that had or has overlapping ports
 * Duplicants exhaling in shallow water will no longer "break" the puddle with their CO2
 * Duplicants will no longer fall through Pitcher Pumps
 * Hypothermia, Heat Stroke, and Sunburn are now "minor diseases" which don't require a medical cot, and last a shorter time.
 * Path finding will no longer try wrapping around the map
 * Decor can no longer be seen through Mesh and Airflow tiles, but can still be seen through Windows
 * Regolith Meteors once again drop enough Regolith to blanket the surface in a protective layer and prevent destruction of the surface. The deeper the layer, the less Regolith meteors will deposit, up to about 8 tiles.

Selected Object and Sidescreens

 * Major revision to the recipe screen for fabrication buildings like the Cook Station and Refinery. Currently they all use the same UI. Now, the UI allows setting a number or infinite amount of any recipe, and recipes without ingredients will be skipped automatically. This UI will be further developed during the testing period
 * Fixed egg icons for critter morphs
 * Updated Drecko description to mention their unusual diet
 * Clarified launch checklist for Empty Cargo Bay
 * Smart Battery and similar side screens allow text input
 * Temperature Sensor can now be configured to any temperature (even ones higher than the sensor's melting point)
 * Temperature Sensor slider has dynamic sensitivity to allow easily scrubbing through useful temperature ranges
 * Many side screens with sliders now have an extended slider range, and 'quick set' buttons next to the text input
 * Rottable items contained in buildings no longer have a blank bullet underneath their name

Main Game View

 * Items in storage are no longer hoverable/selectable from the main view.
 * Prevent "ghost" progress bars from cluttering things up
 * Removed progress bars when Duplicants are just hanging out at the portal

Tools and Menus

 * Building material selection is saved to the save file so you don't have a surprise after a load
 * Building material selection scrolls into view when a building is selected
 * Sandbox filters for Brush, Spawner, etc. automatically focus the input field
 * Move command for Duplicants no longer cancels on right click
 * Build Menu building list is now up to 5 rows tall
 * Build Menu hides unresearched buildings to reduce the number of apparent options in the early game
 * The last 4 categories in the Build Menu hide until at least one building in them has been researched
 * Build Menu icons for oxygen buildings improved to visually imply an oxygen creation function
 * Renamed Algae Deoxydizer to Oxygen Disperser for early-game clarity
 * Tool Menu tooltips cleaned up
 * Tool Menu has been split into "major" tools and "minor" tools
 * Copy Settings now copies door access controls, logic sensors, Smart Batteries, Oil Wells, valves, lures, Coal Generators, and Conveyor Receptacles, as well as all the recipe-based production buildings.
 * Copy Settings will work between similar buildings, such as Pneumatic Doors and Airlock doors.
 * Dimension numbers are now shown for draggable rectangular tools (dig, deconstruct, etc)
 * Lengths are now shown for conduit tools (pipes, wires, etc)
 * Clarification pass for Priority descriptions
 * Added in some "ground" to the Robo-Miner blueprint art to imply it goes against something when rotated
 * Added in some "water" to the Pitcher Pump blueprint art to imply where the surface of the liquid ought to be
 * Wires and pipes no longer play a hookup sound when dragging over a port of a different kind
 * Tool filter checkbox alignment fixed
 * All buildings in the build menu have standardized line weights
 * New button in the build menu to make a copy of the selected building
 * Better tooltips when trying to place a building at an invalid location

Situational Awareness

 * When a building is newly researched the <!> icon shows on the building as well as the menu, until that building is clicked.
 * "What this Duplicant is Doing" status item now always shows at the top of their status list
 * Calories Available in the main HUD now displays calories per food rather than count
 * Calories Available is now sorted
 * Oxygen Generation tutorial message has been split into two notifications and reworded for early game (“Need an oxygen source” message) and mid game (“Not enough oxygen production” message)
 * Tooltip for active infections has been cleaned up
 * Fixed broken Drowning tooltip
 * Better tooltip for death due to low health

Info Screens and Overlays

 * Visual distinction between planets that can and can't be analyzed has been improved
 * Added descriptions for space destinations
 * Jobs Screen is now bound to "J" by default
 * Removed unnecessary items from showing tooltips in the Logic Overlay
 * Temperature Overlay once again shows the temperature of all items
 * Research Screen should no longer hide techs off the side or bottom

Text Cleanup

 * General cleanup of many building descriptions
 * Clarifying early-game tooltips and notifications
 * Renaming of several early-game buildings to help make their meaning and usage more clear
 * Fixed duplicated Transformer descriptions
 * More element names in building descriptions link to the Database
 * Mouse input instructions for tools have been simplified
 * Updated various strings pertaining to exosuits
 * Attribute multipliers (e.g. Decor +10%) now show correctly

Localization

 * Meteor strings are now localizable
 * Updated Russian translations
 * Updated Korean translations
 * Updated Chinese translations

Frontend

 * Startup screen displays better at more resolutions

Music

 * Three new "Ambient Songs" added to increase musical variation between existing Standard Songs

Systems

 * Various unique IDs were being reused by accident, resulting in mysterious errors with assignments, object spawning, element spawning, effects appearing, * and more. Numerous hard-to-reproduce bugs may have been resolved by this.
 * Fixed crash when writing Database unlocks to hard drive
 * Fixed a crash if the game initializes with a tiny resolution
 * Fresh Linux installs would often get stuck on a white or black screen caused by a strange resolution change. Resolution is now forced on startup to resolve this
 * Animations will no longer flicker when a path is completed
 * Fixed looping animations sometimes not looping
 * Fix a crash in text rendering

Optimizations

 * Optimizations to path probing and path finding
 * Reduced memory usage for many effects and temporary objects
 * Improved performance of object stacking
 * Reduced memory usage of Database entries
 * Stop calculating gravities for objects which aren't falling
 * Improve memory usage of a variety of situations, which will also help with lag spikes.
 * Reduce the memory usage of some debug and logging code
 * Flow of gasses/liquids in pipes is now multithreaded for improved CPU usage
 * Building temperature calculations are greatly sped up
 * Some optimizations to critter AI food search

Modding
''Please bear in mind: the game is not stable enough at this point for us to recommend modding, but we're starting to make changes with modding in mind. The changes below are mostly focused around taking datastructures that were hard to extend (enums and fixed-length arrays) and make them into lists and hashes so that modders can push their own data into the game without too much headache.


 * Tools Menu: Tools is now a List, and helper function CreateToolCollection added.
 * Plan Screen (build menu): Categories are now hashes instead of enums so more can be added.
 * Overlay Menu initialization is easier to hook
 * Overlays are now hashes instead of enums so more can be added
 * Filter screen shows mod-added elements
 * Removed unused fields from Substances for clarity
 * Improve Database error logging for bad keys
 * Adjust startup sequence so that mod-loaded anims have a chance to register
 * Send more mod loading errors to the log file
 * Startup errors have a better chance of showing a crash screen
 * Added ModUtil function that ensures all required assets for an anim are loaded
 * Added base materials for solids and liquids to make stubbing in materials easier
 * Will try loading 'elements.json' from mod folders. This data can overwrite existing element values, or add new elements.
 * Added ModUtil function for creating new substances correctly
 * Localization templates (strings.pot) and translations (strings.po) can be loaded from mod folders. Will make distributing translation mods easier, as well as allow mods themselves to be translated.
 * Assets from Assets.cs are now lists instead of arrays, so mod assets can easily be included and used by existing systems.
 * Added special path to Assets (via Assets.ModLoadedKAnims) that simplifies registering of anims from mods

Final Patch Notes From Testing Branch
''These are the changes that went in since 299550 on Testing


 * Fix "Food Source" tutorial hint not recognizing Microbe Musher was built
 * Additional debugging in the fabricators to determine why some crashes are happening
 * Many strings typo fixes and link hookups
 * Fix a crash if you press "launch rocket" before a destination is selected
 * Fix for some fetch chores crashing when their target object disappears
 * Fix a crash in the fabricators when a queue has been completed
 * Remove unnecessary assert which was crashing in some extreme temperature scenarios
 * Copy Settings for doors with access control settings will no longer crash
 * Duplicants in rockets will still be selectable on door access controls